St Caherines, 1 St Catherine's Street, Banff

St Catherine's is a mansion built around 1830 in the style of Archibald Simpson from Aberdeen. This austere two-storey building sits over a raised basement and features five bays. It is constructed from grey granite ashlar with a bull-faced granite raised basement at the front and an eastern gable facing Castle Street. The rear and western return gable are harled with sandstone ashlar margins.

The façade includes shallow giant angle pilasters and an advanced central bay that is fronted by a single-storey Greek Doric portico, which is accessed by a flight of steps that oversails the basement. The entrance has a finely detailed panelled front door with sidelights, panelled pilaster jambs, a modillioned and corniced lintel, and a decorative rectangular fanlight. The eastern return gable features blind centre windows on both the ground and first floors. The ground floor windows have 12-pane glazing, while the basement windows have 9 panes, and the first-floor windows in the rear and return gables also have 9 panes, all of which are timber sash and case. The front first-floor windows are 10-pane horizontal glazed casements.

The roof is shallow piended slate with paired corniced stacks at the rear and a single wallhead stack. The front and eastern return gables have modillioned soffits, while the portico has non-traditional roofing felt. Decorative cast-iron spearhead railings with urn finials and a matching pedestrian gate surround the basement.

The enclosing walls are made of rubble and harled rubble, enclosing the rear yard.

Inside, the mansion features a finely detailed interior with a pair of fluted Greek Doric columns forming the hall screen, an imperial staircase with ornate cast-iron balusters and a polished wood handrail. In the hall, there are two circa 1800 white painted statues—one female holding a ewer and basin and one male with grapes and vine—standing on wooden plinths. The doors are panelled with matching jambs, and the room to the left (west) has a decorative plaster cornice and ceiling, along with shaped and beaded panelled doors and matching window shutters. Some rooms, including the former dining room, have been subdivided into offices, and no chimneypieces remain.